Abstract
An integrative taxonomic analysis of the European species of theAgrotisfatidicaspecies-group is presented with special reference to the European sister taxa ofA.fatidica(Hübner, 1824); in addition, a general overview of the entire species-group is given. The remarkable differences found in the barcodes of the Central and Western European populations ofA.fatidica(sensu lato) led us to recognise isolated species of theA.fatidicacomplex. Two new species,A.mayrorumsp. n.(Northern Italy and the French Alps) andA.mazelisp. n.(French Pyrenees) are described. The neotype ofA.fatidicais designated.Agrotisluehrivon Mentzer & Moberg, 1987 is treated as a subspecies ofA.fatidica(stat. n.).
Highlights
An integrative taxonomic analysis of the European species of the Agrotis fatidica species-group is presented with special reference to the European sister taxa of A. fatidica (Hübner, 1824); in addition, a general overview of the entire species-group is given
DNA extracts were prepared from a dried leg of each of 22 specimens of the Agrotis fatidica species-group from Europe (12 A. fatidica, 2 A. proverai Zilli, Fibiger, Ronkay & Yela, 2010, 5 A. mayrorum sp. n., 3 A. mazeli sp. n., see Table 1.) and processed at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (CCDB, Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph) to obtain DNA barcodes, using the standard highthroughput protocol described in deWaard et al (2008)
The Agrotis fatidica-group belongs to such a disputed species-complex reflected by unstable taxonomic treatment in various monographic papers (e.g. Fibiger 1997; Fibiger et al 2010; Gyulai et al 2017; Hreblay et al 1998; Hreblay and Ronkay 1998; Kononenko 2005; Nupponen et al 2001; Volynkin 2012), and through the description of two new species from Europe during the last few decades, namely A. proverai from Italy (Fibiger et al 2010) and A. luehri from Norway
Summary
Species identification and delimitation is one of the major issues in taxonomic work. In megadiverse groups such as Lepidoptera the taxonomic treatment was almost exclusively based on morphology for nearly 250 years, with integrative approaches being rare. Identification of species nowadays increasingly considers molecular data, which have proved an excellent method for delimitation of large numbers of Lepidoptera on different continents (e.g. Hausmann et al 2011a, 2011b; Hebert et al 2013; Huemer et al 2014b; Zahiri et al 2014). The formation of an increasingly complete DNA barcode-library is providing a basic tool to detect cryptic diversity (Huemer 2011; Mutanen et al 2012, 2013; Huemer and Hebert 2016) and will be a pre-requisite for future taxonomic work.
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